JOE'S CORSAGE

Released posthumously in 2004, this is a collection of very early Mothers of Invention tracks, probably recorded mostly before the Mothers was even the name of the band. These tracks are early versions of tracks from "Freak Out!", "Absolutely Free" and "We're Only in it For the Money". Some have different names. There are also a few covers that don't appear on other albums.

This is a rather valuable collection for the Zappa fan and also a good collection for lovers of Doo Wop/R&B music from the 50s and 60s. The recordings are pretty decent, but there is nothing prog about any of this music. There are also some interview clips included here from a radio show (Canadian I think).

"pretty pat" is a short interview clip about how the band came up with the name "Mothers of Invention". Tracks 2 - 5 are demos from 1965 and are all songs that should be recognized from the early albums, but these are versions that you probably haven't heard, mostly with different lyrics.. For example, "Motherly Love"'s lyrics are more specific when talking about specific members of the band instead of the group in general. "Plastic People" includes lyrics that were probably too questionable for the time it was released officialy for the album.

Tracks 6 - 8 are taken from a live performance possible in California sometime around 1964 or 65. The first snippet from track 6 is from an interview, but it flows into the performance of "My Babe" which is a cover of an old Righteous Brothers song. Next is a short instrumental and after that is "Hitch Hike" which is unique to this collection.

Tracks 9 - 11 are more demos from before the Freak Out! album and include more songs that made some of the early albums. Again, these are rare recordings that were not available previously. The last track is a 5 minute spoken word taken from the interview again where Frank talks about the early history of the group and how tough it was. There are some interesting tidbits here for sure.

There have been other collections from these early years, but these tracks are all pretty much unique to this collection as far as early demo versions mostly. Probably not a lot here to interest the casual listener, but for those interested in the Mother's early history, this is a great collection. No prog though, so don't go looking for it here. 3 stars.